Hair clip-inspired clamp device controls traumatic bleeding

Originally published on September 25, 2013

A new device designed to control severe bleeding that was approved this summer by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already saved the life of a Mississippi man after a Memphis air medical service began using it in late August.

The iTClamp hemorrhage control system is a hair clip-like clamp that closes the edges of the wound to create a temporary pool of blood under pressure, which can form a stable clot and stay in place for hours until the wound can be surgically repaired.

On Aug. 29 it was used by first responders from Memphis-based air medical transport service Hospital Wing on a 64-year-old Olive, Mississippi man who was trimming trees in his yard when his chainsaw became caught in his sleeve, leaving a 7-inch-long, inch-deep cut in his harm that bled uncontrollably.

The medical flight crew applied the iTClamp to the man's wound before airlifting him to a local hospital for trauma operating room services. He received stitches and was released from the hospital eight hours after he arrived, according to the San Antonio Express News.

Made by medical device firm iTraumaCare, also known as Innovative Trauma Care Inc., the iTClamp was invented by Dennis Filips, who served three tours in Afghanistan as a trauma surgeon for the Canadian navy.

The iTClamp is portable, can be easily applied and is being sold for around $100 in the U.S., which means it can be used not only by first responders but also by ordinary people in their first-aid kits. Unlike a tourniquet, the iTClamp allows blood to continue to flow to the extremities, meaning it can be used to control bleeding from potentially fatal injuries in the neck, abdomen and groin area where tourniquets won't work.

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